So long, Good Fairy. Hello, Ugly Sister. No, this is not a pantomime script — although it might seem like one. I refer to The Good Fairy arcade in Portobello Road, home to 50 bustling antique stalls of the sort that make the road in west London so famous. Now the planning officials in Kensington town hall have done their worst and decreed that in its place is to be built a five-storey retail and loft-style apartment complex.

I've just joined the Queen and Terry Wogan in a very small and exclusive group of Londoners. I've opened Tower Bridge. Twice. One gentle press on a small lever and the bridge's 1,250-ton bascules (from the French for "seesaw") pivot in graceful unison to allow the high-masted sailing barge Lady Daphne upriver. The lift takes 90 seconds, 30 seconds more than it did when the bridge first opened in 1896, and is astonishingly quiet. It is a strange and wonderful feeling to set this London landmark, this Victorian behemoth, in motion. It's even better to announce the second lift to waiting vehicles — to literally stop London's traffic.